This document discusses disk formatting and partitioning. It explains that low-level formatting divides a disk into sectors that can be read and written to by adding headers, data, and trailers. Logical formatting then creates a file system by adding data structures to map free and allocated space. Disks can also be used as raw disks without a file system for things like swap space. Boot blocks contain bootstrap programs to initialize the system and load the operating system from a fixed location on the boot disk. Disk controllers can manage bad blocks by marking them or replacing them with spare sectors.

1. Disk
Management

2. Disk Management
Disk formatting
–Low-level formatting, or physical formatting
–Dividing a disk into sectors that the disk
controller can read and write.
• Boot Block
• Bad Block

3. Disk Formatting
• Low-level formatting, or physical
formatting
• Divide a disk into sectors that the
controller can read and write
–A new disk is a blank state –Fill each
sector with a special data structure:
header –data –trailer

4. Disk Formatting (con..)
• Header and Trailer contains information used by
disk controller
–A sector number and an error-correcting
code (ECC)
• When the controller writes a sector of data
–ECC is updated with a value calculated from
all the bytes in the data area
• When the sector is read, ECC is recalculated
and is compared with the stored value  verify
the data is correct

5. Disk Partition
• To use a disk to hold files, OS still needs
to record its own data structures on the
disk
• Partition the disk into one or more groups
of cylinders
–Each partition can be treated as a
separate disk

6. Disk Partition (con..)
• Logical formatting or “making a file
system”
–Store the initial file-system data
structure onto the disk…
• Maps of free and allocated space (FAT or
innode)
• An initial empty directory NCHU System &
Network Lab

7. Raw Disk
• Use a disk partition as a large sequential
array of logical blocks
–Without any file-system data
structures
• This array is called raw disk
–The I/Os to the array is called raw I/O
Example –swap space

8. Raw Disk (con..)
• Raw I/O bypasses all the file-system
services
–Such as the buffer cache, file locking,
pre-fetching, space allocation, file names,
and directories

9. Boot Block
• Bootstrap program initializes system. –
Initialize CPU registers, device controllers,
main memory –Start OS
• In PC, two-step approaches
–A tiny bootstrap program is stored in
ROM.
• Bring in a full bootstrap program from
disk, a bootstrap loader

10. Boot Block (con..)
–Full bootstrap program.
• Stored in boot block: at a fixed location on
the disk
• Load the OS and start the OS
• This disk is called boot disk or system disk

11. Bad Blocks
• IDE –MS-DOS format : performs logical
formatting
• Scan the disk to find bad blocks
• Write a special value into the
corresponding FAT entry for bad blocks
–MS-DOS chkdsk : if blocks go bad
during operations •Search and lock bad
blocks

12. Bad Blocks (Cont.)
• SCSI –Controller maintains a list of bad
blocks on the disk
–Low-level formatting will set aside
spare sectors
• OS don’t know –Sector sparing (or
forwarding):
•Controller replaces each bad sector
logically with one of the spare sectors

13. Bad Blocks (Cont.)
• Invalidate optimization by OS’s disk
scheduling
–Sol: Each cylinder has a few spare
sectors
• Another technique: sector slipping
–Ex. 17 defective, spare follows sector
202 •Spare  202  201  … 18  17

15. Booting from a Disk in
Windows 2000